Hunan Man Relentlessly Tortured While Serving Second 4-Year Prison Term for His Faith
(Minghui.org) Since the Chinese Communist Party began to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999, a married couple in Changsha City, Hunan Province have been repeatedly targeted for upholding their faith.
Mr. Chen Yang and his wife, Ms. Cao Zhimin, were arrested in October 1999 and sentenced to four and three years in prison, respectively. Their daughter, Ms. Chen Fayuan, came to the U.S. in 2020, when she was 15, to study music. Not long after, in November 2020, her parents were arrested again for studying the Falun Gong teachings with other practitioners. Mr. Chen was given another four-year term with a 15,000-yuan fine. Ms. Cao received three years and ten months, and was fined 10,000 yuan. They served time at the Wangling Prison and Hunan Province Women’s Prison, respectively.
It has been six years since Ms. Chen last saw her parents. Now a Private First Class, she calls on the international community to help end the persecution.
Ms. Cao and her daughter Ms. Chen (photo taken around 2010)
The rest of the article below details the torture that Mr. Chen suffered while serving his second prison term.
Relentless Torture
Between July 2022 and December 2024, Mr. Chen was incarcerated at the Wangling Prison. Because he refused to renounce Falun Gong, he was subjected to various brutal torture methods and denied many basic needs. He had asthma attacks and was hospitalized several times. By the time he was released in November 2024, he only weighed about 40 kg (88 lbs). He was very weak and most of his hair had turned gray.
Beatings
In late October 2022, because Mr. Chen refused to attend a brainwashing session, inmates Luo Yong and others dragged him to the blind spot of the surveillance camera and beat him. After he fell to the ground, Luo stomped him on the chest. The pain didn’t go away until ten days later. Inmate He Zuqiang also kicked him, and inmates Tang Shunguo and Li Yuliang slapped him in the face.
The inmates also made two attempts to force Mr. Chen to split his legs in a straight line. In this painful torture method, the victim’s ligaments were often torn, sometimes leading to permanent disability. Mr. Chen shouted for help and they relented.
Freezing and Starvation
In December 2022, inmate Chen Zhiyi poured several cups of ice cold water into Mr. Chen’s clothes. He threatened to repeat the torture every hour. Mr. Chen’s clothes were soaked, and he couldn't stop shivering.
When the freezing torture failed to shake Mr. Chen’s will, inmate Zhang Hejian cut his food rations, giving him only two spoons of rice and very little vegetables for each meal.
Sleep Deprivation
Sleep deprivation was a commonly used torture method in the prison. Since February 2023, the inmates postponed Mr. Chen’s bedtime from 10 p.m. to midnight or even 1 or 2 a.m. For a few days, they forced him to sit on a small stool with an uneven surface the entire night without any sleep. He was deprived of sleep for two straight days once. The extended hours of sitting and sleep deprivation caused his buttocks to swell with excruciating pain. He held a hunger strike to protest, and only then did the inmates allow him to sleep for a longer time.
Mr. Chen had an asthma attack after he was forced to sit on the stool until 2 a.m. one day. He was sent to the emergency room at 4 a.m.
Denied Restroom Use
Denied restroom use was also commonplace. Between August and September 2023, inmate He Zuqiang denied Mr. Chen’s access to the restroom. He was forced to urinate in his pants. As inmate He couldn’t stand the smell, he stopped the practice. However, he still threatened Mr. Chen with it.
On another occasion, the inmates forced Mr. Chen to drink urine.
Long Hours of Standing
Throughout his prison term, it was common for the inmates to force Mr. Chen to stand for over ten hours a day, if he refused to cooperate with the brainwashing or didn’t finish “homework” on time.
On April 1, 2024, because Mr. Chen refused to tear the photo of Falun Gong’s founder as ordered by the inmates, guard Liu Xiaoliang forced him to stand from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. every day for one month. He wasn’t allowed to sit down during meal times. His feet and legs became extremely swollen, and he had difficulty walking.
On another occasion, Mr. Chen was forced to squat for long hours.
Stabbing
In July 2024, a few months before Mr. Chen’s term ended, the guards increased the number of inmates assigned to “work on” him. Inmate Huang Pei broke a clothes hanger and then used it to stab Mr. Chen’s inner thighs, three times a day. After a few days, his thighs were bleeding badly, but the guards didn’t send him to the hospital until two weeks later.
Waterboarding
Inmates Huang and Yan Xue also submerged Mr. Chen’s head in a water barrel, in the blind corner of the surveillance camera. He almost suffocated.
Torture illustration: waterboarding
Scalding
Inmate Yan filled a plastic bottle with boiling water and placed the bottle on Mr. Chen’s chest or back. Inmate Huang helped him by immobilizing Mr. Chen. When Mr. Chen protested, the guards blamed him for not finishing the “homework.”
Brainwashing
In addition to the physical torture, the inmates forced Mr. Chen to watch videos demonizing Falun Gong and promoting atheism almost every day. He was also ordered to do daily “homework” to further “internalize” the content.
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